A collection of podcasts exploring the culture in pop culture. Our shows range from the general (flagship show The Chronic Rift) to the specific (The Batcave Podcast). We look at literature (Dead Kitchen Radio), movies (The Weekly Podioplex), family (Generations Geek), gaming (The Cardboard Jungle), and more.

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March 2024
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31

Syndication

 "The Chimes of Big Ben"

UK Airing: October 6, 1967

US Airing: June 8, 1968

 

One of the fan favorites, in the second episode of the series, The Prisoner has a chance to escape thanks to meeting a prisoner who a similar background to our hero.

John and author Jim Beard discuss the plot choices of this particular story, pose the questions, "Does anyone really ever leave?", and "Is the viewer as much a prisoner as The Prisoner himself?".  Please make sure you comment here or by writing us at chronicrift@gmail.com.

Direct download: Once_Upon_A_Village_-_The_Chimes_of_Big_Ben.mp3
Category:Once Upon a Village -- posted at: 9:03pm EDT
Comments[0]

 Groucho Marx kicks things off with an episode of “You Bet Your Life.”  He trades barbs with a taxi driver from Vienna, and an Irish-American Texan tells how he met his wife when he ruined her cake at a St. Patrick’s Day party.  Then, on “Vic and Sade,” their teen-aged son Rush is staying up late hoping to finish off the leftovers from a neighbor’s party.  Later, both Rush and Vic have to fight the temptation to draw a mustache on a sleeping man.

Episodes

 

You Bet Your Life

December 6, 1950

“The Secret Word is ‘Hair’”

2:08

 

Vic and Sade

1940

“Too Many Faces in the Windows” 

aka “Ice Cream and Salted Peanuts at Midnight” 

“Mr. Sludge Grows a Mustache”

aka “Sleepers Beware”

31:48

Comments[0]

"Arrival"

UK Airing: September 29, 1967

US Airing: June 1, 1968

 

Your Chronic Rift host, John S. Drew, is joined by author/editor Jim Beard to explore this cult limited series in the first of our limited series summer podcasts.  You know Jim from such podcasts as The Batcave Podcast, The Hornet's Sting Podcast, and right here on The Chronic Rift.  Together, as a pair of fans with some knowledge of the series between them, they will explore each episode and try to come up with their only answer to what it is we all want - information.

In the first episode, John and Jim discuss the pilot episode, the Village, and Patrick McGoohan as an actor.  Please make sure you comment here or by writing us at chronicrift@gmail.com.

Direct download: Once_Upon_a_Village_-_001_-_Arrival.mp3
Category:Once Upon a Village -- posted at: 4:50pm EDT
Comments[0]

 We start off this week with some clever science fiction in the form of “X Minus One.”  In this episode, some hapless humans find themselves at the mercy of an alien lifeboat bent on saving their lives no matter what.  It’s an adaptation of Robert Sheckley’s “The Lifeboat Mutiny.”  Then, on “The Jack Benny Show,” Jack obsesses about the $4.75 he lost on a horse race, and the event manifests itself in the form of a hilariously strange dream. Also, the gang sings a parody of that ballad of a fighting Irishman, “Clancy Lowered the Boom.”

Episodes

X Minus One

September 11, 1956

“The Lifeboat Mutiny”

1:46

 

The Jack Benny Show

May 2, 1954

“Jack Loses $4.75 at the Race Track”

31:56

Comments[0]

It’s National Library Week, from April 19th to 25th of 2020, so we’re going to present two transcriptions, one a thriller and the other a comedy, centering on libraries.  First up, in this episode of “Suspense,” movie star Myrna Loy, who you probably know as Nora Charles in the “Thin Man” movies, is a librarian whose investigations into a vandalized copy of “Gone With the Wind” seem to point to a kidnapping.  Then on “Fibber McGee and Molly,” Fibber receives a bill for an overdue library book, which he can’t find.

Episodes

Suspense 

September 20, 1945

“Library Book”

2:13

 

Fibber McGee and Molly

November 21, 1939

“Overdue Library Book”

33:52

Comments[0]

Will Rogers, Jr. was an American politician, writer, and newspaper publisher. When he wasn’t involved in politics, he was frequently found acting in movies, television, and even radio.  Tonight we present “Rogers of the Gazette,” his series where he plays a modified version of himself. Here he runs the fictional small-town newspaper, the “Illyria Weekly Gazette,” and dispenses homespun common sense and aphorism-filled advice to the betterment of his readers and fellow citizens.  Then on “Our Miss Brooks” what could possibly go wrong when one of Connie’s students whips up a new form of egg dye?

 

Episodes

Rogers of the Gazette

August 12, 1953

“Land Deal”

2:13

 

Our Miss Brooks

April 9, 1950

“Dyeing Easter Eggs”

32:21

Comments[0]

Here’s another bonus quarantine-themed episode for you to help pass the time.  We begin with “The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower.”  Horatio Hornblower started life in a series of adventure novels written by C. S. Forester from the 1930s to the 1960s.  Hornblower is a British officer in the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail, the Napoleonic Wars of the 1800s.  That’s the same time period as Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin or “Master and Commander” series.  If you like one, you’ll like the other.  Then, on “Fibber McGee and Molly,” all the usual gang has been quarantined at the McGee residence for a week due to measles.  Let’s check in and see if everyone is still on their best behavior.

 

Episodes

The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower

August 18, 1952 / May 8, 1953

“Quarantined for the Plague”

2:47

Fibber McGee and Molly

March 11, 1941

“Quarantined With Measles”

24:27

Comments[0]

“If Freedom Failed” was a radio program created by the Armed Forces Radio Service. It depicted an alternate America in the 1950s that had been taken over by Communists. Each of the 26 episodes was inspired by actual events in Communist nations, but presented filtered through the prism of American life in fictional Springfield, U.S.A. This episode centers on a museum where historical facts are being altered to suit the Party.  Then on “Duffy’s Tavern,” actor Vincent Price drops by to visit “The Ham’s Club,” a dining establishment for actors only that barkeep Archie is trying to promote.

 

Episodes

If Freedom Failed
Episode 1, 1951
“A Matter of Fact”
2:37

Duffy’s Tavern
January 26, 1951
“Actor’s Club at the Tavern”
34:55

Comments[0]

Here’s a special bonus episode for everyone stuck inside and starved for entertainment -- two episodes on the theme of quarantine.  First up on “Have Gun Will Travel,” Paladin helps a Native American man whose sick cattle result in others enforcing a quarantine around his land with their rifles.  Then on “The Jack Benny Program,” Jack is sick in bed, and the gang is NOT practicing “social distancing” as they keep dropping by to visit.

 

Episodes

 

Have Gun Will Travel

February 22, 1959

“Winchester Quarantine”

1:43

 

“The Jack Benny Program”

March 18, 1951

“Jack Talks About His Illness the Previous Week”

26:36

Comments[0]

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, it’s “Lux Radio Theatre” with their adaptation of the 1949 film “Top o’ the Morning.”  This tale of a singing insurance investigator – NOT Johnny Dollar – stars Dennis Day from “The Jack Benny Show.”  Academy Award-winner Barry Fitzgerald and nominee Ann Blyth reprise their roles as residents of the Emerald Isle caught up in Day’s search for the stolen Blarney Stone.

Lux Radio Theatre 

March 17, 1952

“Top o’ the Morning”

2:55

Comments[0]